"Garbadge Man" is a song by the

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

band

Hole A hole is an opening in or through a particular medium, usually a solid Body (physics), body. Holes occur through natural and artificial processes, and may be useful for various purposes, or may represent a problem needing to be addressed in m ...

, written collectively by the band's original line-up. It is the third track on the band's first studio album, ''

Pretty on the Inside ''Pretty on the Inside'' is the debut studio album by American alternative rock band Hole, released on September 17, 1991, in the United States on Caroline Records. Produced by Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon, and Gumball frontman Don Fleming, the al ...

'', released on September 17, 1991, by

Caroline Records Caroline Records is a record label that was founded in 1973. Founded in the United Kingdom to showcase British progressive rock groups, the label ceased releasing titles in 1976 and then re-emerged in the United States in 1986. The label rel ...

. Dealing with religious and personal issues, "Garbadge Man" was Hole's first song to have a

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

, which was broadcast on ''

120 Minutes ''120 Minutes'' is a television program in the United States dedicated to the Alternative rock, alternative music genre, that originally aired on MTV from 1986 to 2000, and then aired on MTV's associate channel MTV2 from 2001 to 2003. After it ...

'' on

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

several times in the early 1990s. The song’s title, with a seemingly-misplaced "d," is intentionally misspelled. A ''

Melody Maker ''Melody Maker'' was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. In January 2001, it was merged into "long-standing rival" (and IPC Media sister publicatio ...

'' review on Hole's live performance at Club Lingerie in

Hollywood, California Hollywood, sometimes informally called Tinseltown, is a List of districts and neighborhoods in Los Angeles, neighborhood and district in the Central Los Angeles, central region of Los Angeles County, California, within the city of Los Angeles. ...

, on May 23, 1991, written by

Everett True Everett True (born Jeremy Andrew Thackray on 21 April 1961) is an English music journalist and musician. He became interested in rock music after hearing The Residents, and formed a band with school friends. He has written and recorded as The ...

, a friend of the co-writers

Courtney Love Courtney Michelle Love (née Harrison; born July 9, 1964) is an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, and actress. A figure in the alternative and grunge scenes of the 1990s, Love has had a career spanning four decades. She rose to promi ...

and

Eric Erlandson Eric Theodore Erlandson (born January 9, 1963) is an American musician, guitarist, and writer, primarily known as a founding member, songwriter and lead guitarist of alternative rock band Hole from 1989 to 2002. He has also had several musical s ...

, clearly stated the grammatical error and the original register at BMI for copyright collect also has the "d" in "Garbadge".

Origin and recording

"Garbadge Man" is known to have been written before July 1990, as Hole performed an embryonic version of the song at a live performance at

Raji's Raji's was a rock and roll nightclub in central Hollywood, open in the 1980s and early 1990s. It was located in the Hastings Hotel building, 6160 Hollywood Blvd. The space had previously been occupied by a Greek restaurant called The King's Pa ...

in Hollywood on July 26, 1990, as part of an eight-song set. Diary entries from 1990, featured in '' Dirty Blonde: The Diaries of Courtney Love'' (2006), also reveal that the song was originally known as simply "Garbadge". The first and only known studio recording of the song was made in March 1991 at Music Box Studios in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, as part of the sessions for ''

'' (1991). The song was produced and engineered by

Kim Gordon Kim Althea Gordon (born April 28, 1953) is an American musician, singer and songwriter best known as the bassist, guitarist, and vocalist of alternative rock band Sonic Youth. Born in Rochester, New York, she was raised in Los Angeles, Califor ...

Sonic Youth Sonic Youth were an American rock band formed in New York City in 1981. Founding members Kim Gordon (bass, vocals, guitar), Thurston Moore (lead guitar, vocals) and Lee Ranaldo (rhythm guitar, vocals) remained together for the entire history of ...

and Don Fleming of Gumball and mixed by the regular Hole engineer Brian Foxworthy. It was eventually featured as the third track on the album, which saw worldwide release in September 1991.

Composition and lyrics

The song is one of the more structured compositions on ''Pretty on the Inside'', with both its lyrics and music following a more standard verse-chorus-verse formula. The music was composed by the lead guitarist

, the bass guitarist

Jill Emery Hole was an American alternative rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1989. It was founded by singer and guitarist Courtney Love and guitarist Eric Erlandson. It had several different bassists and drummers, the most prolific being d ...

and the drummer

Caroline Rue Hole was an American alternative rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1989. It was founded by singer and guitarist Courtney Love and guitarist Eric Erlandson. It had several different bassists and drummers, the most prolific being d ...

with additions by Love, who focused primarily on lyrics. The musical content is heavily influenced by

no wave No wave was an avant-garde music genre and visual art scene that emerged in the late 1970s in Downtown New York City. The term was a pun based on the rejection of commercial new wave music. Reacting against punk rock's recycling of rock and r ...

and

punk rock Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced sh ...

and resembles

noise rock Noise rock (sometimes called noise punk) is a noise music, noise-oriented style of experimental rock that spun off from punk rock in the 1980s. Drawing on movements such as minimal music, minimalism, industrial music, and New York hardcore, a ...

similar to Sonic Youth, with whom the album's sound was largely compared, due to the overuse of

feedback Feedback occurs when outputs of a system are routed back as inputs as part of a chain of cause and effect that forms a circuit or loop. The system can then be said to ''feed back'' into itself. The notion of cause-and-effect has to be handle ...

and distorted guitars. Unlike other songs on the album, "Garbadge Man" was written in standard tuning. The verses are composed of four

barre chords In music, a Bar chord (also spelled barre chord) is a type of chord (music), chord on a guitar or other stringed instrument played by using one finger to press down multiple strings (music), strings across a single fret of the fingerboard (like ...

(D5-E5-C5-G5) and one

major chord In music theory, a major chord is a chord (music), chord that has a root (chord), root, a major third, and a perfect fifth. When a chord comprises only these three notes, it is called a major Triad (music), triad. For example, the major triad bui ...

(E) and use two distinctive guitar techniques: sliding and string muting. The song's chorus is repetitive, rearranging three of the five verse chords, and focusing largely on sliding. The lyrics, written solely by Love, narrate themes common in Hole songs from this period and also use vast amounts of

religious Religion is a range of social- cultural systems, including designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relate humanity to supernatural ...

imagery, similar to that in "

Turpentine Turpentine (which is also called spirit of turpentine, oil of turpentine, terebenthine, terebenthene, terebinthine and, colloquially, turps) is a fluid obtainable by the distillation of resin harvested from living trees, mainly pines. Principall ...

". The first verse explores religious decay and the chorus questions conventional religious ideals as well as lashing out at an unnamed person in the narrator's life. The end of the song references Love's feelings toward those around her, saying that every one of them "looks the same" and "feels the same". This theme of conformity was found in several songs on the band's second album, ''

Live Through This ''Live Through This'' is the second studio album by the American alternative rock band Hole, released on April 12, 1994, by DGC Records. Recorded in late 1993, it departed from the band's unpolished hardcore aesthetics to more refined melodies ...

'' (1994).

Music video

"Garbadge Man" was Hole's first song to receive a

, and the only video recorded for ''Pretty on the Inside'', even though it was not released as a single. Directed by an Kevin Kerslake, the video is extremely abstract, with no definitive visual characteristics other than major use of contrast and light. Some fans have interpreted this concept as a reflection of Hole's

influence at the time. Shots of Love and Rue asleep and drawing artwork in a trembling car are interspersed with shots of the band playing on a stage outside the car window. According to Love, she obtained original rolls of radiographic medical film from

Denver, Colorado Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

that had been used in the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

, which the music video was then shot on, giving many of the images an

X-ray An X-ray (also known in many languages as Röntgen radiation) is a form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than those of ultraviolet rays and longer than those of gamma rays. Roughly, X-rays have a wavelength ran ...

-like appearance. The video was broadcast three times on

; in 1992 during an interview with Love and Gordon, again in 1994, and in 1995 as part of ''

''. However, it was never as popular as their later videos for ''

''(1994) and ''

Celebrity Skin ''Celebrity Skin'' is the third studio album by American alternative rock band Hole, released on September 8, 1998, in the United States on DGC Records and internationally on Geffen Records. It was the last album released by the band before the ...

'' (1998). For the music video, a different studio mix of the song was used. This mix, reputedly done solely by Gordon, diverged significantly from the final version featured on ''Pretty on the Inside''. In order to be broadcast, the mix censored the profanity in the song, down-tuned the song one-half step, and shortened the song by removing most of the feedback-laden coda. There were also several minor changes in phrasing, especially evident in the last verse. There is also a second version of the video with another slightly different mix of the song that removes the profanity but sounds closer to the album mix. Similarities include no vocal doubles on the chorus and a guitar sound that has less bass.

Personnel

;Musicians *

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

- guitar *

Bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

;Technical personnel *

- producer,

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

* Don Fleming - producer, engineer *Brian Foxworthy - engineer, mixing

References

{{authority control 1991 songs Hole (band) songs Songs written by Courtney Love Songs written by Eric Erlandson Music videos directed by Kevin Kerslake Song recordings produced by Don Fleming (musician) Songs critical of religion